Software tools for optimization of hybrid fuel cell power supplies

The military’s needs for soldier portable power are growing rapidly, and the only way to address this power need today is through batteries. Fuel cell power systems offer the potential of greatly reduced weight to support the soldier’s power needs, but fuel cell power systems today are only poorly optimized. To enable optimization of the fuel cell power systems for given user-specified power-profiles and energy-use constraints, Mesoscopic Devices and its partner, the Colorado School of Mines, propose to develop a system-level software model to accomplish this optimization. This software tool will incorporate component and system level modeling for the fuel cell power supply and its components, as well as energy storage devices (e.g. batteries), devices to support power peaking (e.g. ultracapacitors) and power management systems. The general nature of the software will support a range of fuel cell technologies, including direct methanol, proton exchange, reformed methanol and solid oxide fuel cells. We will implement the software to provide a general framework for optimizing these systems, allowing users to enter component models for any components they wish to specify and to define the power and energy profiles required.